When we last heard about “Jurassic Park IV,” it was back in May, when pre-production was temporarily suspended, or at least reorganized, so the creative team could get a better grasp on the material. The summer 2014 release date, everyone agreed, wasn’t feasible. But until then, there wasn’t much in the way of news about the project. Until last night, when Universal announced that “Jurassic Park IV” will now be called “Jurassic World” and will open on June 12, 2015. Oh and it’s going to be in 3D. Because that’s still a thing, apparently.
There were a few more details released about the upcoming sequel, as well, in terms of who is assisting the movie behind the scenes. The studio has announced that Steven Spielberg would be back to produce “Jurassic World,” alongside Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley. After directing “Jurassic Park” and it’s immediate sequel “The Lost World,” Spielberg had a cursory “Executive Producer” credit on “Jurassic Park III,” but his “return” to produce “Jurassic World” suggests he had very little (if any) involvement. Spielberg returning to the fold is very good news indeed.
Producer Kathleen Kennedy, Marshall’s wife and a longtime stalwart of the franchise, is too busy running Lucasfilm and getting “Star Wars: Episode VII” in shape for Disney to return for “Jurassic World” (which is supposed to open this same summer). Sorry, hubby. It’s a fight to the death.
Additionally, the studio notes that the screenplay is by director Colin Trevorrow and his “Safety Not Guaranteed” collaborator Derek Connolly, which means that the most recent drafts that the “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” team of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver had written are no longer in play. While the log line is still officially under wraps, the name of the new movie, “Jurassic World,” suggests, as many have noted, that this one will be set inside a fully functioning version of the theme park (you know, a theme park like Walt Disney World).
For those of you at home playing “Summer of 2015 Bloodbath” bingo at home, “Jurassic World” will open one week before Disney/Pixar‘s mind-blowing “Inside Out” and two weeks before the Alan Taylor-directed “Terminator 5” (or whatever it’s going to be called).
And to get you just a little bit more pumped for “Jurassic World,” you can watch some “pitch footage” done for the film below (Marshall claims that this sequence isn’t in the movie), which screened at a ‘Star Wars’ convention in Germany recently. It’s pretty cool, regardless of what it is.